Christmas Traditions: Orange Pomanders

Ever since Mom told me about getting oranges in her stocking as a girl in the 1940's, I've tried to incorporate oranges into Christmas decorating. I've read that in the 19th century, the well-off would use orange pomanders as part of their Christmas decorations because oranges were considered a rare treat and something of an extravagance. The citrus scent combined with the smell of cloves smelled heavenly and probably helped to alleviate basic household odors. How to make them? I used a pin to help start the holes for the cloves and then simply added the cloves. Nothing could be easier and they look great.

Christmas Traditions: Fondue

I've written a couple of times about my family's tradition of fondue on Christmas Eve. I decided to do a little research on this thing I've eaten for 45 years on December 24. Here's what I found out...

According to James and Kay Salter in their book Life is Meals, the town of "Gruyeres is about seventy miles northeast of Geneva as you head into the heart of Switzerland. It produces one of the two cheeses - the other being Emmenthaler - that are the basis for fondue, which comes from the French verb fondre, 'to melt.' "(p. 391) Also, "Fondue likely originated in remote mountain villages during winters when food was scarce and people softened their old, hardened cheeses over a fire, scooping from the pot with pieces of bread." (p. 391)

I know that my mom uses Gruyere cheese, but I'm not sure about the Emmenthaler. I guess more research is in order.

Holiday Brunch 2010

On December 23, Dale and I hosted a holiday brunch. We invited our friends Chris and Alyn who brought along with their very mobile and delightful toddler son Ellis. We also invited our friend Eric who brought along his delightful boyfriend Erich. The menu included champagne, mimosas, an egg bake, sausages, hash browns, mixed fresh fruit, and a maple pecan bundt cake. Everything turned out quite well but I was particularly excited about the bundt cake as it was the first one I ever made.

The recipe for the bundt cake is from Nigella Lawson's book Nigella Kitchen and can be found on page 239. Use of the fleur de lis bundt pan that I bought a few months ago made this particularly fun.

The recipe for the egg bake is from one of those Pillsbury Classic Cookbooks (you know, the kind you get at the grocery store check-out lane) and is dated from May of 1993. The recipe is found on page 21 of that publication and is as follows:

Confetti Egg Bake

Ingredients:

Half cup shredded Cheddar cheese

1 (9 oz.) pakage of frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed to drain

Half pound bulk turkey Italian sausage, cooked

1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms

Half cup chopped green onion

1 (2 oz. jar sliced pimiento, drained [I used a 4 ounce jar]

6 eggs

1 cup half-and-half

Half cup shredded Swiss cheese

Half teaspoon paprika [I forgot to add this]

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 8-inch square (1 1/2 quart) baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Layer Cheddar cheese, spinach, Italian sausage, mushrooms, green onions, and pimiento in spray coated dish. In medium bowl, combine eggs and half-and-half; blend well. Pour egg mixture evenly over layered mixture. Sprinkle with Cheddar cheese and paprika.*

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 30 to 40 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Let stand 5 minutes before serving. 6 servings.

*Note: This can be assembled a day in advance. Cover and refridgerate. Bake at 350 F. but increase the cooking time to 40-50 minutes.

Christmas Day 2010

Dale and I had a lovely and quiet Christmas morning. We spent time relaxing and enjoying each other's company and looking at our beautiful Christmas tree. We also spent some time getting ready for having Mom over for Christmas dinner. The plan was to eat at about four o'clock so I began getting the beef stroganoff ready shortly after eight o'clock am. Last year we prepared Julia Child's recipe for beef bourguignon and, while incredibly delicious, it took a huge chunk of time to prepare on Christmas Eve. This year we decided to go the easier route and use the crock pot beef stroganoff recipe that we've been using for years. I'm pretty sure that this is the first year we've made it for Christmas dinner. It's one of our favorite winter recipes and this is the first time we've made it this season. It's also extremely easy to make.

Mom came over at 3 p.m. and we had drinks and appetizers (crackers and hummus). We watched the ending of Ben-Hur on Turner Classic Movies while Dale got the egg noodles for the stroganoff and the broccoli ready. We were eating by about 4:30. It was all very delicious. Dessert was a Buche de Noel from Kowalski's (at 54th and Lyndale Ave. So. and also my favorite grocery store) and coffee.

We then spent some time reminiscing about how Mom celebrated Christmas as a child. I've recently been doing a lot of geneology research into the French Canadian branch of my family tree. My great-grandmother Cora (Alma) Driscoll (Fugere) was from French Canada and I was curious to know if she had passed any French Canadian Christmas traditions down to my grandmother Jean Wagner (Driscoll). Mom said she didn't think so. She told me that my Great-Grandma Cora had never taught any of her children French and that Grandma Jean (hereafter referred to as Baba) resented that. Mom said she didn't think my great-grandma passed down any specific Christmas customs to Baba.

Mom talked a little bit about how her own Christmases played out as a child. She said they never did anything on Christmas Eve but that she and her siblings opened their stockings on Christmas morning. She said she always got an orange in her stocking. They would go to church and then come home and open presents. Each child got only one present because money was very tight when she was younger. She said that one year she got a slip as her Christmas present.

I remember quite clearly my own Christmas traditions while growing up. Christmas Eve day was usually pretty relaxed (for us kids at least). Mom I'm sure was getting ready for Christmas Eve's fondue dinner and doing last minute preparations for Christmas Day. Dad always did his Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve day. I remember going with him to the Southdale shopping mall one year when I was probably 12 or 13. I was surprised how dead it was as the mall that day. I had supposed more people would be doing last minute shopping but that was not the case. I don't know if that was an anomaly for the time or not. It sure isn't that way today. We'd start the fondue dinner at about 5:00 pm with the cheese fondue. I remember helping to stir the cheese on the stovetop while Mom slowly added more cheese the pot. It would then be added to the fondue pot on the dining room table. We'd then dip chunks of stale French bread into the cheese. It was delectable!! We'd move on to the meat in oil fondue after the bread in cheese. Mom always had beef stew meat for the oil fondue. She'd mix together a special ketchup-like mixture for dipping the fried meat in. In maybe the late seventies or early eighties she added scallops to the oil fondue. She made a special herbed butter to dip the scallops in after they were done in the fondue pot. After the meat fondue she would get the chocolate fondue ready. I remember dipping strawberries and bananas in the chocolate. It was divine! I remember being amazed at how much I could eat when we'd do fondue. It was easy to pack it all in due to taking breaks between the courses to get the next course ready and because we had to eat slowly during each course. That's just the nature of fondue. It takes time to prepare each little morsel!

Christmas morning began with opening stockings once everyone was awake. Stockings were always chock full of good stuff. One year Mom put an orange in each of our stockings and I was very perplexed. Not disappointed, just perplexed. Why would I have an orange in my stocking when I could walk to the kitchen and grab one from the fruit basket? Mom explained how she always got an orange in her stocking as a child and what a rare treat it was to have citrus fruit in the winter. It made sense as far as I was concerned and I appreciated the mini-history lesson. Due to this story I try to incorporate oranges with cloves stuck in them into my Christmas decorating as an adult.

We'd go to mass at Annunciation Catholic church after opening stockings and eating a light breakfast. After mass we'd open the presents from underneath the Christmas tree. At about 2 p.m. we'd have a Christmas feast. The meal was usually a repeat of Thanksgiving dinner but some years we had ham instead of turkey. After dinner I'd call whoever my best friend was at the time to wish them a Merry Christmas. We'd then talk about everything we got as a Christmas present. The evening of Christmas day was usually spent recovering from the food and excitingment by watching Christmas programming on T.V. Once the VCR came along we'd spend the evening watching Christmas movies.

Christmas Eve 2010

Dale and I sang together at the 4 p.m. Christmas Eve service yesterday. Mom and her friend Lynne attended. Before the service began I had a small glass of champagne. After the service we went to Mom's where we started dinner with cheese fondue. My family has been doing fondue on Christmas Eve for as long as I can remember. We also used to fondue meats in oil for many years but for about the last 10 years we have not been doing that as our tastes have changed and the oil now tends to be a gut bomb on our digestive systems. When Sam was home for Christmas a couple of years ago his wife Becky prepared the whole fondue shebang starting with cheese (bread being the dipping item), then meats (mostly beef and scallops) in oil, and finally chocolate fondue with fruits. Again, we've been doing it as long as I can remember so it was quite a trip down memory lane.

Back to the present. Following the fondue we had spinach salads with Mandarin oranges and walnuts. Dale and I brought the dressings namely Annie's brand raspberry vinaigrette and Annie's papaya poppy seed. Dale and I chose to use the papaya poppy seed while Mom and Lynne had the raspberry vinaigrette. Both went very well with the Mandarin oranges. Mom broiled steaks after we finished the cheese fondue. Mine was rare and very delicious. Dessert was Baba dessert which I named for my baba, Jean (Driscoll) Wagner, because I could never remember the name of the dessert itself. It was a very lovely dinner and evening and nice to continue with our traditional Christmas Eve foods!

Thanksgiving 2010

I still find myself thinking a lot about how much the holidays have changed for me over the last few years; the loss of Dad with whom I spent 41 Thanksgivings and Christmases; the loss of the family home where many of those Thanksgivings and most of those Christmases were spent. I have a new understanding of being thankful for being able to spend this Thanksgiving with Mom and Dale. Sadly, the shadings of this newer understanding are colored by the loss of my father.

In 2005 Dale and I started the tradition of cooking the turkey and cranberry sauce here at 4309 and then bringing it to Mom and Dad's. For Thanksgiving 2006, the Thanksgiving just before Dad died, we did the same thing. Dale, Mom and I celebrated Thanksgiving 2007 on Stevens Ave at Mom and Dad's house. Sadly, Dad was not with us. In 2008 we brought the turkey over over to Becky's house to celebrate with her and the boys as Sam was in Iraq. In 2009, Sam, Becky, and the boys were in Leavenworth, so we did the whole meal for the first time at our house with Mom joining us. With the just the three of us it was quite different than the Thanksgivings I remember at Grandma Lex's house in Two Harbors with 20 or so people but still just as fun and quite cozy at that!

That brings us to 2010. It'll be the three of us again. I got up this morning and had coffee while reading the holiday issue of Martha Stewart living (my own little Thanksgiving tradition). I watched a bit of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC but decided to turn in off when they brought the U.S. Pizza Team onto Rockefeller Plaza to toss pizza dough in the air. At this point I made the pumpkin pie and just pulled it out of the oven. It smells great. Here's the recipe I used:

Libby's Famous Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

1 (9 inch) unbaked deep dish pie crust [I'll admit I didn't make my own crust but used a Pillsbury refrigerated one instead. Still very delicious.]

3/4 cup white sugar [I used C&H bakers sugar.]

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground gingerm [I used one full teaspoon]

1/4 teaspoon gound cloves [I used a heaping quarter teaspoon]

2 eggs

1 (15 ounce) can Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin

1 (12 fluid ounce) can Nestle Carnation Evaporated Milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

2. Combine sugar, salt cinnamon, ginger and cloves in small bowl. beat eggs lightly in large bowl. Gradually stir in evaporated milk. Pour into pie shell.

3. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 digrees F.; bake for 40 to 50 or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. [Note: I checked after 50 minutes and the knife did not come out clean. I checked at 55 minutes and the knife did not come out clean. The edges of the crust were not burning so I put it in for another 5. The knife STILL did not come out clean so I set the pie on a hot pad on the stove to cool. I seem to remember this is what happened last time I made this recipe.] Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate. (Do not freeze as this will cause the crust to separate from the filling.)

Dale and I started warming up the oven for the turkey just after noon and opened a bottle of champagne. We made a toast to a Happy Thanksgiving.

Ginger

After the church service today at Gethsemane Episcopal Church in downtown Minneapolis, Joanne, the hospitality guru, directed me to the spread of cookies she had laid out. "You're own personal recipe?", I asked. Joanne's response: "Yeah, right." She pointed out the chocolate chocolate chip, butterscotch, oatmeal raisin, and the ginger cookies. Ginger snaps have long been one of my favorite cookies and not having had one in a long while, I went for those. Mmmmm. Even though they were store bought they were very tasty.

I love my mom's cookies. She recently brought me a bunch of her chocolate chip cookies. I usually put them in the freezer and eat them right from there. In fact, I have some on hand now and just ran to grab a few as I write this. She used to make ginger snaps too. I remember moving to my apartment on Girard Avenue in Minneapolis and mom phoning and asking me if there was anything I missed from home. My response?: "Ginger snaps". She made me a batch.

The following is from The Deluxe Food Lover's Companion by Sharon Tyler Herbst and Ron Herbst:

"Ginger; gingerroot. A plant from tropical and subtropical regions that's grown for its gnarled and bumpy root. Most ginger comes from Jamaica, followed by India, Africa and China. Gingerroot's name comes from the Sanskrit word for 'horn root,' undoubtedly referring to its knobby appearance. It has a tan skin and a flesh that ranges in color from pale greenish yellow to ivory. The flavor is peppery and slightly sweet, while the aroma is pungent and spicy. This extremely versatile root has long been a mainstay in Asian and Indian cooking and found its way early on into European foods as well. The Chinese, Japanese and East Indians use fresh gingerroot in a variety of forms - grated, ground and slivered - in many savory dishes. Europeans and most Americans, however are more likely to use the dried ground form of ginger, usually in baked goods."

Yes, I love that peppery and slightly sweet taste. Note to self: ask Mom for her ginger snap recipe. It's high time I start making these on my own.

Not too long ago Martha Stewart had an article in her magazine about ginger snaps in a February issue. It may have been in the Good Things section. Anyway, it said that ginger snaps go mighty well with raspberry jam. I thought I'd give it a try. Not having Mom's recipe, I went to the grocery store to look for some ginger snaps. In the cookie aisle along with all the Keebler brand cookies I found a bag of Rippon Good brand ginger snaps. The cookies come out of Rippon, Wisconsin and were quite good if but a bit drier than homemade cookies. And yes, they go extremely well with raspberry jam.

Christmas 2009

Christmas becomes more meaningful every year. I've been doing lots of reading this season about the traditions of Christmas. I've known for a long time that so many of the traditions found at Christmastime predate the Christian era. During the time of the solstice attention naturally turned to the hearth, home and family due to shortened days, colder weather, and extra time that came with the completed harvest. More time indoors due to the weather and winter vacation allow me to focus on hearth, home, and family. As a teacher I've always enjoyed having a two week winter break during the last part of December as a time to turn my attention to getting ready for Christmas, ponder the past year and think about what lies ahead. It is a natural time to reflect. The religious aspect of Christmas has always meant so much to me and I grow in that appreciation year after year as well. I think of the stories in the Bible in which Jesus shares a meal with others and appreciate being able to do just that with my own loved ones. I'm sure Christ's birthday celebrations looked quite a bit different than what we've created to help commemorate his birth. I admit that part of the energy I get in all the preparations for the season come from actually wanting to create a welcoming place for Him as an actual guest.

I can't believe the holiday season of 2009 is past. There were many wonderful experiences this past Christmas and New Year's that will live on forever in my memory. Corny but true. Christmas Eve was lovely this year. Dale and I went to Mom's condo for cheese fondue and steak. This is the first time we've done a Christmas dinner at Mom's new place. It was difficult not having Dad with us. I found myself really missing him as I stirred the fondue cheese and listened to the Kingston Trio Christmas album. During Christmas Eve day Dale and I worked on the beef bourginon recipe from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I wrote an entry on that book so long ago and finally made a recipe from it. I once played sous chef to a friend who was making that same recipe 20 years ago. All I did then was get the film of skin off the mushrooms and the skins off the pearl onions. We weren't so fussy with the mushrooms this time around and boiled the skins off the pearl onions. The gently falling snow made it a magical day and contributed to the beautiful atmosphere for the 5 hour total prep/cook time that the recipe took. A couple martinis helped to make it even more magical. I ate too much at Mom's that night and probably had one drink too many. I was not quite recovered from my cold and hit a brick wall after the processional song at midnight mass. This caused me to conk out and I ended up on the couch of the church gathering room for the remainder of the service. Ah well. It was a magical Christmas Eve none the less. On Christmas Day Mom came over for the beef bourginon we worked so hard on the day before. My good friend Noel joined us as well. I felt much better on Christmas Day.